The Massachusetts Library System is pleased to announce that we have contracted with ALA to provide our members with access to their live webinars.  These webinars are free to MLS members who register through our calendar.  Please do not register directly with ALA. Members who register directly with ALA are responsible for paying their registration fee. 

Please help us keep MLS sponsored training free for all members. If you are unable to attend the live webinar, please cancel your registration. A cancellation link can be found in your confirmation email, or you may contact Sarah Donnelly at sdonnelly@masslibsystem.org to cancel. 

Description

The Annual Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Virtual Forum is scheduled for March 4 & 6, 2025. We're excited to be in our 4th successful year of offering an economical, virtual venue to learn about reference and user services. This forum is open to ALL librarians and library workers. RUSA membership is not required. 

The Forum Theme is: Meeting Users' Needs (EDIA)

Users with varying experiences and needs:

• Broad set of socio-demographic backgrounds
• Cultures
• Ages
• Sexualities
• Races
• Groups that have experienced historical/institutional inequities
• Neurodiversity
• Gender
• Disabilities
• Ethnicities

By acknowledging these, we can better provide for our patrons and our communities.

What do we know? How can this knowledge help us? Why is it valuable? How can building better services for one group benefit other groups? How are we bringing these groups to the conversation to help us build better practices? Why should we care?

Libraries serve changing and dynamic user groups that often have intersecting needs. By acknowledging these different user groups, we can better provide for our patrons and our library communities. Whether you are working with a neurodivergent student to find research for an assignment, or are interacting with a patron who is struggling to navigate technology, or you are aware that spaces in the library could be more welcoming to different groups of users - librarians work constantly to change or adapt to meet our patrons where they are. But we often do not always know how to serve these groups.

Hear presentations from our sections and interest groups that address how to meet a variety of users' needs, with a particular focus on meeting user needs under equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.

Session Titles: 

• Evolving Library Services: A Holistic Approach to Patron Support and Well-being
• Genealogy Research for African Americans and Asian Americans: Tools and Strategies to Support Family History Researchers
• Partnering with Professors: Expanding one-off class instruction with custom course videos
• Informal Learning and Community Building through Library Outreach
• Helping Diver Users with Financial Literacy Resources
• and More!

This virtual event is for all types of library works in reference, user services, adult readers advisory and collection development as well as resource sharing, genealogy and archives, business reference and reference technology.